Orders for Custom Wee Horses have been coming through thick and fast, either by requests direct from the website (using the
contact form), or through my
Folksy shop). And it was through Folksy that I received an order from Elly a few days after I came back from the States for three Custom Wee Horses!
Elly is just lovely, and owns three beautiful horses - (from left to right) Hugo, Rosie and Nugget. (The horse on the far right is a second Rosie, ordered as an extra present for Elly's dad.) Elly introduced me to each of them in a way that brought them to life for me, and I'd like to share that with you.
Hugo is a smokey dun Criollo horse, who comes from Argentina and was rescued from the meat wagon in Italy before finding his way to Elly. He's shy, but loves his food, having just found out that apples, carrots and polos aren't poisonous! He's a rich, earthy colour and I made him up by mixing mostly black with some chocolate brown clay. He has a white star under his forelock. A very swarthy Argentinian boy!
Rosie, the chestnut, is a young-at-heart 23 year old derby day horse with a cynical view on life. Apparently she loves anything that comes out of your pocket, even snotty hankies! I love her rich, russet glossy coat, and for that I added some metallic copper clay to chocolate brown, with a touch of ecru to add a creamy touch. Rosie has the whitest legs I've seen, which contrasted beautifully with her coat, and I added a disc of creamy white clay on top of the brown for her hooves. Her mane and tale were a darker reddish brown than her body, so I took some of the body clay and added brown and black to keep the same tonal range. The white star I cut out freehand from very thinly rolled white clay, and then lightly pressed it to the head with a thin knitting needle.
Nugget is just lovely! He's a four year old Haflinger with a cheeky personality who loves to be around people! His coat is this amazing deep tan with rich, reddish overtones, and which contrasts amazingly with his creamy white mane and tail. I love experimenting with colours to see what gives the most accurate result, and for Nugget, I also used a pinch of the copper to get that rich earthy colour. His muzzle is grey, blending into his white blaze, and I cut an oval of pay grey clay and cut it to a kidney shape before placing it at the bottom of his muzzle over the white blaze. I then rolled up small balls of darker gray and pressed them in with a ball shaper to create the nostrils. Because there was quite a lot of extra clay added to the face, I had to make sure that the head shape was slightly smaller than usual to keep the proportions right. Nugget also has white legs, so again I laid a thin sheet of white clay over and sheet of darker clay and cut out a circle for the legs and hooves. The mane and tail were made by mixing mostly white with a touch of ecru to get that creamy colour.
I have been overwhelmed by the positive response to my Custom Wee Horses! This has been mostly due to the recipients writing about them on a horsey forum, TrotOnline - thanks to all who have spread the word! The horse community is very similar to the crafting community in many ways - it's so friendly, everyone really wants to help everyone else out, and there's a lovely feeling of family which is just so compelling. I'm chuffed to bits that my Wee Horses are being welcomed so readily into the fold!
Hugo is a smokey dun Criollo horse, who comes from Argentina and was rescued from the meat wagon in Italy before finding his way to Elly. He's shy, but loves his food, having just found out that apples, carrots and polos aren't poisonous! He's a rich, earthy colour and I made him up by mixing mostly black with some chocolate brown clay. He has a white star under his forelock. A very swarthy Argentinian boy!
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